Festive recipes using Primula cheese

I received 6 free tubes of Primula kids cheese to review. And as the Christmas season is fast approaching, I have come up with a selection of festive recipes, mostly my own but I have adapted one from the recipe sheet they emailed me.

Last Christmas I remember seeing a cute photo on Facebook of Strawberry Santas. I couldn’t find the photo again and I don’t know what ingredients were used originally, but I thought this would work well with Primula. The boys loved these. But although they were tasty, I don’t think mine look as cute as I had hoped.

Strawberry Santa Hats

Ingredients

1 punnet of strawberries
Approx 3/4 tube of Primula
A few raisins

Method

Cut the raisins into as small pieces as possible.
Cut the tip of each strawberry off for the hats and place aside.
Place the strawberries upside down.
Top with Primula.
Add 2 raisin pieces to front of Primula as eyes.
Place the strawberry tip on top.
Squeeze a small blob of Primula to top of tip for bobble.
Serve and enjoy.

And secondly something that I make occasionally, but have previously always used Philadelphia, worked a treat with Primula.

Salmon & Cheese Blinis

Ingredients

1 packet of blinis
Approx 3/4 tube of Primula
4 slices of smoked salmon

Method

Cut salmon into blini size pieces.
Spread Primula on each blini.
Top with Smoked salmon.
Serve and enjoy.

And as I had some salmon left over, I also tried making pinwheels.

Salmon & Cheese Pinwheels

Ingredients

1 seeded wrap
2 slices of smoked salmon
Approx 1/2 tube of Primula

Method

Spread the Primula on the wrap.
Top half the wrap with slices of smoked salmon.
Roll up the wrap, starting at the salmon side.
Cut into pinwheels, at approx 2cm apart.
Serve and enjoy.

The boys hate mushrooms, even the smell. So I had to wait until they were out to cook the next dish. Absolutely delicious. What a shame that the boys don’t like mushrooms as I do want to make these again.

Cheesy Garlic Mushrooms

Ingredients

200g Mushrooms
1 clove of garlic
Approx 3/4 tube of Primula
1 tbsp olive oil

Method

Remove stalks from the mushrooms, these can be reserved for another dish.
Press garlic through garlic press.
Heat oil in frying pan.
Gently fry mushrooms and garlic.
Spoon Primula into each mushroom.
Continue to fry for a couple more minutes.
Serve and enjoy.

I bought a pot of dip mix powder at a food fair, which I thought would work well mixed with Primula instead of the usual sour cream.

Cheesy Garlic & Dill Dip

Ingredients

2 tsp Garlic & Dill dip mix
Approx 1/3 tube of Primula

Method

Mix dip and Primula together.
Allow to stand for 30 minutes for flavour to develop.
Serve with vegetable crudites or tortilla chips or pringles or breadsticks and enjoy.

We all love cheese scones in our household, but I’ve always traditionally used grated cheese. So I adapted my recipe to use Primula and also added some pesto for this mini variant. Yummy!

Mini Cheese & Pesto Scones

Ingredients

100g self raising flour
25g margarine
25g Primula
Pinch of salt
1 tsp pesto
Approx 70ml milk
Approx 3/4 tube of Primula (for filling)

Method

Preheat fan oven to 200 deg C.
Sieve the flour.
Add the salt.
Rub the margarine into flour.
Mix in the Primula, pesto and sufficient milk to give a soft but not sticky dough.
Draw the mixture into a ball.
Dust a chopping board with flour.
Flatten mixture to approx 1.5cm high.
Use a 4cm circular cutter to cut out scones.
Place on a greased baking tray.
Brush tops with milk.
Bake for approx 10-15 minutes until well risen, firm and golden brown.
Allow to cool.
Cut scones in half and fill with more Primula.
Serve and enjoy.

I’ve adapted the next recipe from the Primula recipe email. You can see the original online here. As well as making some cranberry parcels, I also tried some with apple chutney. A little fiddly to make but the end result was worth the effort in my opinion.

Cranberry Cheese Parcels / Apple Chutney Cheese Parcels

Ingredients

12 sheets of filo pastry
25g Lurpak cooking liquid (or melted butter)
Approx 3/4 tube of Primula
45g cranberry sauce
45g apple chutney

Method

Preheat fan oven to 200 deg C.
Brush sheets of filo pastry with cooking liquid.
Cut each sheet into rectangles, approx 10cm by 15cm.
Place one rectangle on top of another, slightly offset.
Repeat with 2 more rectangles, so you end up with 4 layers.
Place 1 tsp of cranberry sauce or apple chutney on centre of each.
Place a small squeeze of Primula on top of the sauce or chutney.
Bring the corners of the pastry up to a point and pinch together.
Place on a greased baking tray and brush with remainder of cooking liquid.
Cook in preheated oven for about 7-8 minutes.
Serve hot and enjoy.

A mini variant on a quiche next. Again this is something that I would have traditionally used grated cheese, but it worked fantastically with Primula.

Cheese and Chicken Tartlets

Ingredients

100g wholemeal flour
100g plain flour
pinch of salt
50g margarine
50g dripping
Approx 4 tbsp cold water
80g cooked chicken or turkey
Approx 3/4 tube of Primula
1 large egg

Method

Preheat fan oven to 180 deg C.
Grease a mini-muffin tin.
Soften the dripping at room temperature.
Sieve the flour into a bowl and add salt.
Add margarine and dripping.
Rub the fat into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add enough water to make a soft dough.
Knead it for a minute or so.
Then cover bowl and put in the fridge to rest for 30 minutes.
Roll out the pastry to a thick block, approx 2cm high.
Cut pastry into cubes, approx 2.5cm.
Place each cube in a hole in the mini-muffin tin.
Press into a tartlet shape. (I have a gizmo from Pampered Chef for this but you can use your thumb)
Shred chicken into tiny pieces and share equally between all the tartlets.
Squeeze a large blob of Primula into each tartlet.
Whisk the egg.
Pour a little egg into each tartlet.
Bake in middle of preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes.
Serve either hot or cold.
Enjoy.

I did also try making some cheese straws, but they didn’t tasty cheesy enough to me, so I shall try again using a larger amount of Primula, before I blog the recipe.

A 100g tube of Primula kids cheese currently retails at £1.15 at both Tesco and Sainsburys which I believe is a fairly consistent price with other cheese spreads. I like how this is targetted at kids being mild with reduced salt and added calcium. It also has no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. We have enjoyed this product previously in sandwiches or on toast, but it was good to see how versatile it is in cooking. I will certainly continue to experiment with Primula in my recipes.

Primula cheese also comes in a range of other flavours, some with ham, prawns or chives. And it was good to see the label on the tube that profits go to the Kavli Trust Charity.

I hope you all agree that these canapé dishes would make a lovely spread for a Christmas party buffet. And I’d love to hear your ideas for a festive recipe using Primula.

Disclosure.  This post is a review of a product I was sent for free.  All opinions are my own.